The iPad Gen: A Troubling Concern for the Future of Games
08 October 2024 11:58 ET
Last edited 23:59 ET 08 October 2024
I literally just blared a YouTube video on my smart device in public, and no one reacted. You would think this is a harmless event, but for me, this gives me a very bad feeling.
This scene, for me, paints a horrifying image that extending to scenarios unrelated to that current moment.
Extend this image to a burnt-out parent not questioning what’s going on on the iPad while their kids watches and does Lord knows what.
Go figure that the parents are too stressed out from putting out fires, narrowing their focus.
In GenX, they put kids in front of the TV. In my generation (Millennial), we got put in front of the desktop and gameboy/playstation. Now the iPad.
Couple this with easy access to things like Tor browser (that’s the dark web. You could always get access to hardcore stuff in my time [as with previous times]. This won’t change, creeps will just find a new way), and you have a recipe for disaster.
…Do you know what’s happening on YouTube Kids, YouTube Shorts, TikTok, Talking Tom, VTube, Minecraft, Roblox, or Fortnite? Do you know what those are, or what they mean? Much are quality products—we praise Creative Mode in Minecraft (someone built an entire computer with a series of on/offs [like an actual computer is made, haha]), and there is an unfathomable amount of intelligence poured into these products.
I don’t want to raise panic and undo so much progress in the industry I’m passionate about, but there are disgusting things going on in these communities and I won’t let my industry be desicrated like this, at least not within my space.
These companies go at lightning speeds to capitalize on the emotional energy of children. Children, with their fresh verve and emotionality, can coax their emotionally burnt-out middle-class parents into buying this or that product.
I intuit that a good chunk of Generation Alpha knows that their GenX and Boomer parents can neither keep up with nor comprehend what they're doing on these devices, and relies on that. I could be wrong. If I'm right, however, this is asbsolutely disconcerting.
There was recently a TikTok video of a 14-year-old girl shooting her mother three times in the face, killing her live on camera. Then she was somehow surprised when she got the verdict she got in court. Do you understand that, beyond adolescent disconnection from the effects of one's actions (due to the Frontal Lobes not being completely formed), that this series of events points to a youth that is severely disoconnected from reality?
How is any, I mean any, of what going on in schools--these tragedies, the shootings, the bullying, and the predation--a surprise?
Pristine AI images like the above frighten me. Not because I'm a luddite--Empathy Software is a cutting-edge software company--no, it's because it's emblematic of a deeper issue of mass escapism, wherein we get hypnotized with "the future is now" and being the "most advanced" when we're activley turning a blind eye to the litany of messy, ugly things going on that we have a reasonable chance of ameliorating if we just look at them for what they are. One at a time.
You know…easy access to credit in the ‘80s caused a boom and all, happy happy fun times, but the consequences are now on our front lawn.
What will we do?
I feel like a good first step is acknowledging The Human Shadow--which can pass from generation to generation--and doing the necessary Shadow Work.
What will you do?
Warmest Regards,
Russell Campbell | President & CEO | Empathy Software LLC
